


Bell Pepper

by koalaoshiz



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Clones, Disney’s Atlantis is relevant for a lot of things, F/M, Getting Together, Head Injury, M/M, Panic Attacks, Serious Injuries, TW SAND PLANET, background Heith, but lot of fluff too, fuck you s6, lot's of sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-30 14:20:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20098582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koalaoshiz/pseuds/koalaoshiz
Summary: After accidentally stumbling onto the cloning facility, Shiro realizes that he is not, in fact, the original Shiro, and in a panic, flees. He is pursued by Lance, who he has grown close to recently because of the time and effort Lance has been putting in to try to help him with the headaches that have been plaguing him and making him churlish. Unfortunately, the Lions are downed by the automatic defense system of an unfamiliar planet and both Paladins are hurt. They must work together to survive and Lance does his best to reassure his friend that he is not to blame for his origins and has value in his own right. Meanwhile, Lotor and Allura have taken one of the discovered clones back to the Castle of Lions to try to better understand what actually happened to Shiro during the fight with Zarkon.





	Bell Pepper

**Author's Note:**

> Shoutout to my absolutely awesome Beta @leandralena on Twitter!! You never gave up on me and I was just so happy to work with you!! Thank you for beta-ing my works and putting my scattered thoughts back in order <3
> 
> And shoutout to my utterly amazing Artist @whvfind on twitter, @tan-morgan on tumblr, your art is just so great and you are such a delight to talk to!  

> 
> <https://tan-morgan.tumblr.com/post/186753833428/a-beautiful-writer-kaptainkoalaoshiz-with-help-a>
> 
> You can watch the full pictures on both of her accounts!!
> 
> Please give them both a huge thank you for helping me on that Bang as it truly was an adventure! I wouldn't have been able to finish it without their help <3

Since Shiro came back, for the second time, he was more shaken up than before and was struggling to cope with his memories and PTSD. It was becoming hard for Lance to watch the man he liked become more and more short tempered and suffer from intense migraines. It was always frustrating to see their Black Paladin grit his teeth in pain from bright lights or flinch if an unexpected alien walked behind him during peace talks or coalition meetings. 

It was hard for Lance because he could do so little to help Shiro. It wore him down, especially now that he had to work more earnestly at being his Right Hand Man. Keith was gallivanting somewhere in space with the Blade of Marmora and sure, Lance kind of felt bitter about this - who the hell just abandoned ship when his friends needed him so badly? But it wasn't his choice, so he had to grit his teeth, push out his chin and bear it. 

It was hard work to balance everything; between learning how Red works differently than blue, checking up on Pidge and Hunk so they didn’t overwork themselves and throwing glares at Lotor when he stepped a bit too close to Allura. (He and the princess had become quite good friends, when he stopped trying so hard to get her to romantically love him and he become honest with his attraction toward Shiro.) It wasn’t like he didn’t trust Allura to deck Lotor if he ever stepped out of line, but he felt protective, the same way as when Gabriella had brought home her first girlfriend. It was always kind of an embarrassing show of intimidation but he was getting better at it. Hopefully.

What he was definitely getting better at, was spotting the beginning of Shiro’s migraines and subsequently calming down the first signs of frustrated anger that shiro showed at hurting so suddenly, without warning or reason. The pain always made shiro lash out with clipped, brutal quips that Lance learned not to mind as they were never directed at him or any other members of the team. He couldn’t say the same for the poor aliens that crossed paths with the Black Paladin before Lance came to buffer. 

It always ended with Hunk and Pidge laughing at the looks on the aliens faces when they met a grouchy, sarcastic toddler the size of an adult and not the level headed leader that they had expected. They could forgive him; after all Matt had once said that he was only six.

Not even matts humor could make him laugh because he was so frustrated by his inability to control his condition.

So whenever he could, Lance would steal shiro away to either of their rooms, turn the light very low and massage his scalp to help quell the pain. Most of the time it helped lessen the pain and Shiro could nap for a while, but sometimes it didn't help at all. Those times were always extremely hard on Lance, not being able to help Shiro more, but the older man was always grateful for his effort. No matter the end result.

It was in one of those moments, that lance found himself lying in shiro's bed with shiro resting in his lap. Lance massaged his scalp, feeling Shiro’s muscles relax more and more as time went on. 

“Can you talk to me?” Shiro asked after a few minutes of silence. It was something he didn't ask often, but Lance had quickly learned not to ask “about what”. Catch the ball and roll with it was the theme of their little sessions.

“Ok, so I've been taking advantage of the lovey-dovey googly eyes Allura has been sending Lotor - and him to her. It's so cute when you catch them unaware - and I am slowly teaching her about the most powerful queen there was on Earth and her story in the hope that she remembers it when they get married and have babies.”

“I have a feeling you are not talking about Wu Zetian.” Shiro mused, relaxed as could be lying on top of his friend. 

Lance laughed, “Nope. And anyway I believe she was an empress? Tsk, tsk. I thought you were a history nerd.”

“Ooh, excuse me, mister. One cannot make a single mistake while suffering a headache, huh?”

“Sorry, sorry.” Lance laughed as he patted Shiro's hair, trying not to shake him too much as his chest went up and down to the rhythm of his amusement.

“So, who is the strong lady you were telling Allura about?” Shiro asked again, shifting slightly so he would be able to look more comfortably at Lance. It seemed like his headache had gone away enough for Shiro to act more casually and calmly.

“The mighty Queen of Atlantis Kidagakash Nedakh.” Lance announced with a little flare, shaking his hands razzle dazzle like. Shiro chuckled at that.

“You think that will work?”

“I mean, I guess. I started by listing their similarities, and Allura seemed really interested in all of it. And Pidge even vouched for me, can you believe it?”

“High praise coming from her.” Shiro agreed, looking impressed that Lance had been able to talk Allura into potentially naming one of her daughters after a Disney character. 

“Yeah. Pidge even gave Allura that whole spiel about our people wanting to conserve her culture and teach about her and her people. So they made it as an animated movie so even children could learn about her. Boom, great explanation!”

“Also I’m pretty sure Hunk has seen that movie twice, so when I see him tomorrow, I’m going to get him in on it as well.”

Shiro snorted at that, rolling onto his side so he would be lying on the bed beside Lance. He seemed to be feeling better, his face devoid of the previous pain. Lance really hated to see him in pain like that because frankly, hadn’t this man suffered enough? He had survived a lot of traumatic events for what? Being recaptured by the same assholes that took him from Earth and replaced his arm with a weapon meant to cause pain to shiro as much as anyone else. 

Lance promised himself that once Zarkon was put down like the bastard he was, he would take Shiro to a full day of pampering at a high-end spa. He deserves to be pampered and treated like the hero he is. He deserves the biggest bed full of the softest pillows, he deserves all the pastries and to touch the stars in peace. Never again would he suffer as much as he had. Never again would he fight against sleep so nightmares couldn't catch him. Never again would he have to fight to survive. 

If someone were to read his mind at this exact moment and tease him about how infatuated with Shiro he was, Lance would deny everything on the spot. Lance wouldn’t dare use those moments of his friends’ pain and weakness for his own gain.This was all very platonic and he knew that, his mind knew it and his heart knew it as well. Taking advantage of Shiro like that would be like stepping as low as the Galra. 

He was doing all of this for shiro from a friends point of view. Absolutely not because he is a lovestruck idiot . Without proper communication with Shiro about his feelings, and knowing if they were returned, Lance would never step out of line. 

“What are you thinking about?” Shiro asked him. “You’ve got a pretty serious expression on your face right now.”

“I… I was thinking that, all things considered, I am glad to be your friend.” Lance said. narrowly avoiding embarrassing himself by confessing his love to Shiro, like he had thought of doing more times then he was comfortable admitting even to himself.

“Lance…” Shiro looked at Lance like he knew that lance was keeping something from him, something important. “You can tell me anything, you know that, right?”

“Of course I do.” Lance sighed, letting his head fall back onto the pillows. This was his chance to tell Shiro, he decided. Because he wasn't sure he would have the courage to do it at any other time.. Shiro deserved to know that he was loved, and whatever the outcome, Lance would feel better after emptying his heart. 

Hopefully, Shiro wouldn’t get mad at him or be uncomfortable with him, right? After all, even said out-loud, if Lance never acted on his emotions then they would just be awkward at first and then he would forget all about it. Right? 

Right.

“And… I was so grateful to have gotten to know you, Shiro. My perception of you has changed so much from when I would just watch you from afar at the Garrison. You were the star shining so brightly, the poster boy, Takashi Shirogane who was the youngest pilot for the Kerberos mission. And i was a simple cadet, struggling to learn all the levers and buttons on the simulators and eventually failing, ending up in the cargo class.

“But then you were gone. Suddenly going from the Garrison’s ace, to a national disappointment. No one dared to speak about you and when they did, it was always to add another sin on your back. Only a few people really tried to clean your reputation. Keith was the most fervent, obviously.”

“For a year we thought you were dead, then unexpectedly you came back from space, and then things went really fast, and we all ended up launching into space. We ended up having to save the universe and there you were, unwavering. A living monument dedicated to bravery. You could have said no at any time, you had all the right to. You had already been through so much, but you stayed with us. 

“We fought alongside each other, putting our lives at risk together, and I realized that I hadn’t been fair to you since that time, so long ago, when we shook hands in that shack.”

Lance paused in his explanation, taking the time to look at Shiro’s face to see if he was pushing it too far. Shiro was looking back at him, crinkles around his eyes, but his expression looked more pensive than anything else. 

“Tell me more.” he asked again, his voice low and cautious. There was a strange glint in his eyes that Lance couldn’t quite put a name to, but seeing him so attentive gave him more courage.

"Nine months ago, after the whole affair with Ulaz and the Blades, I realized that I had been putting you on a pedestal this whole time. That I was only interacting with you like you were another authority, someone to look up to. And that wasn’t fair to you. I finally understood that, when i realized that you didn’t consider my help as something you could rely on. Because I wasn’t considering you or your opinions as anything other than a stepping stone to help me get a ‘higher position in voltron’ or whatever the fuck I was still thinking at that time.” 

“That's not how you think anymore, is it?” Shiro's asked. The question made him feel the same guilt that he had felt during his sudden realization. He gently shook his head, keeping his eyes on Shiro. 

“You began to include me in a lot of activities… because of guilt?”

“I won't deny there wasn't a tiny bit of guilt at first” He admitted. “But for the most part, with your pedestal gone, I wasn't stopped by the thought that you wouldn't want to join. You had such an aura of 'I can't have fun, I'm the leader’ that I thought I would annoy you by asking you to relax.”

“Lance…”

“Yeah no, but! Imagine you were sent out in space, far far from home and the only one you thought you could trust as an authority figure was the man you admire the most! Tell me you wouldn't have had some difficulties seeing them as something else.”

Shiro hummed at that, probably considering it. Allura and Coran didn't (and couldn't) count because none of the paladins had known of them, and obviously neither Pidge or Hunk would deny they had also acted distant towards Shiro. 

“What about now?” Shiro asked, the question felt almost tentative. 

“Now I don't only see the hero I wished to see; but also someone that I respect as a person. Someone who is unbelievably kind and deserving of so much… as someone I truly fell in love with…” 

Lance sucked in a short, silent breath after his confession; as unplanned and confusing as it might have sounded, he had not been this sincere in a long time. Fingers were crossed from this point onward.

He was a bit surprised by the look on Shiro's face as he was processing everything that had been said. His eyes were somewhat downcast and he was chewing on his lower lip. Lance got a bit worried as the minutes dragged by and Shiro was frowning more and more. That, in his experience, was never a good sign.

“Shiro?” Lance asked, as he let his thumb caress the skin of the back of his shoulder. Maybe his voice showed a sliver of dread.

There was a squeaky sort of noise and Shiro turned to hide his face in Lance’s chest. His breath was warm on the fabric of his shirt making it tickle a bit . 

“Did you really have to be that smooth?” Shiro murmerd from his place in Lances shirt.

“Excuse me?” Lance laughed. Was… was Shiro embarrassed by his heartfelt speech? That would be a first, and something to add on to the blackmail he was collecting with Pidge in their downtime. 

“How can you say something so… so... like that, and with such a serious expression?”

“How should I have said that?!” Lance was trying to stifle his laughter now, his body shaking from the exertion. 

“With less confidence and red as a beet? I don’t know! Not with that self assured expression.”

“Are you embarrassed by that?” Lance asked gently.

“It’s more…” Shiro seemed like he was stammering, and when he peeked his head out of his hiding place on Lance’s chest, his cheeks were aflame and he didn’t look that confident himself. 

“I didn’t expect you to confess to me in such intimate situation? I probably thought you’d be more… I don’t know… one to do those extravagant asks like for proms or marriages?” 

Lance snickered at that, and actually swallowed his saliva wrong and began to cough, turning so he wasn’t doing it all in Shiro’s face. The indignant slap on his side cracked his resolve and he laughed harder, trying not to die. 

“Do I really give off that vibe?” He finally asked, managing to not drown in his own spit. “I mean, really?”

“On the outside, yes.” Ouch, coming from Shiro that was a truth that hurt a little. He may be a bit too colorful and dramatic sometimes. 

“But I suppose it depends on the person I am wooing, too.”

And there was that noise again. That squeak, that was difficult to associate with someone as imposing as Shiro, but it was the most adorable sound Lance had ever heard. 

“I didn’t know you were ‘wooing’ me.” Shiro said, voice soft and incredulous. 

“Well, we’re kind of both oblivious so I am not offended.” Lance chided. His fingers moving like tiny legs up Shiro’s shoulder to the nape of his neck. “Why do you think I invited you to that fish restaurant on Plusb?”

“Because you knew I missed japanese food?”

“Well, that’s one part.”

“Wait, the Moving Garden of Stutik?”

“A pretty darn good date. The flowers complimented your eyes. ”

“The hot baths of Bhekvu?”

“I’ll admit, I wanted to see you in a swimsuit.”

“You weren’t bad looking yourself.” Shiro smiled up at him and Lance spluttered a little bit. Ok so maybe, MAYBE it was easier dishing out compliments than receiving. But, it was especially true because Shiro was saying it and no one else. 

“Now that I understand you've been… interested in me, I can safely assure you the feeling is mutual.” 

Oh how soft his smile was in that instant, and it was only for him. Only for Lance. 

“I love you.” Lance murmured.

Lance found it pleasant to see that Shiro could become even more red than he already was. A little nugget of knowledge he would keep near his heart, because how could this man be any more adorable? It was sorcery.  
►------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------◄

Keeping their budding relationship on the discret side wasn’t because they didn’t trust their friends with it, but mostly because it was something fragile and very new. They wanted to take their time with it and not force anything between them. Touches were still hesitant and as far as kisses were concerned, the most they did was slight pecks on the cheek. Shiro had also asked to share a bed, and Lance had taken advantage of the situation to make him finally wear his Lion slippers and pajamas. He still couldn’t believe Shiro had never put them on, which was a shame because they were very comfortable and they suited him so well. 

The rest of the time was spent training, helping Lotor put the Galra empire back in order and trying not to die. They were doing a great job so far, even if there still was some latent anxiety over not finding any clues on Haggar’s whereabouts. Even Lotor had no idea where she could be, or what she could have planned for the future. Thankfully, resurrecting Zarkon again wasn’t on the program though. 

Lance had been left aboard the Castle of Lions to keep watch one day when things got a bit too eventful for his liking, and Lotor was left behind as well. There was an unspoken decision between the human Paladins, not to trust the new Galran Emperor just yet, even if he had proven himself to them (and to Allura). They collectively felt that there was no real way of knowing if it wasn’t a trick. 

Yet Shiro was more and more comfortable letting Lotor have additional freedom inside the Castle. Even to allow him more inclusion into Voltron’s affairs, and Lance could see why. While Lotor had been a formidable adversary, cunning enough to outsmart them, his mind was better served in the more bookish ways. It was as if a nerd had been backed up against the wall for too long, and had finally decided to use his smarts to decimate everyone who got in his way. In that train of thought, Lance was quite glad they had decided to help him when they did.

He wasn't as glad when Allura decided on going after said nerd so quickly. Yeah,so what if her cheek marks had glowed and his too? That didn't mean you should throw caution out the window! She didn't even know him that well, and she was agreeing to his plans for Zarkon and more because of the “mark of the chosen?” Yeah, fuck that. 

Even though Lotor had apologized, and set himself straight after the events on Naxhela, he could still be planning to saying goodbye to Voltron after His empire stabilized. And poor Allura would have her heart crushed. 

Backstabbing people ran in Lotors family. Yet Lance knew better than to put everyone in the same basket. A parents nature didn't mean the offspring would be the same. 

It was all so confusing and conflicting. Lance really tried not to think too much of it, preferring instead to follow his instincts and go with the flow in any situation. 

So here he was, alone in the Castle with Coran and Lotor, with not much to do besides wait. That was why he thought it would be a good idea to take care of Kaltenecker. The poor cow had been kind of stressed out by the previous days events, and needed to be taken care of. Deluxe massage and cleaning was on the program.

Lance had never really thought that all the stories about grey aliens kidnapping cows from their fields were true, but since he literally got one from an Onilu - who matched the description of the Grey Aliens pretty well - he couldn’t exactly deny it. What was more puzzling to him was a simple thought, were the Onilu still kidnapping cows? Or did they have them in cow shaped cryopods to give to their customers...? 

Lance was imagining a four armed financial menace,when he heard someone clear their throat behind him. So much for having some relaxing times with his lady, Lance thought, breaking free from his daydream

“Red Paladin, Lance, correct?” Lotor's voice rang out to where Lance was taking care of Kaltenecker, making sure she was properly fed. He grumbled a bit at being bothered in a rare moment of relaxation. 

“That's my name, don't wear it out.” Lance replied snarkly.

“... Yes.” Lotor said, after a short and awkward pause. 

“It seemed to me a great opportunity to get to know you better. We never quite had the occasion, and you are still obviously wary of me. Trust is not easily gained.”

“I trust you enough.” He replied back, taking hay to scrub Kaltenecker's flank. “But in my defense, you nearly killed us several times, alright.”

“Fair. But the same could be said to you.”

Lance grumbled an unintelligible sentence. He was not denying it, but that didn't mean he liked to be put in his place like that. Unfortunately, the ball was on Lotor's side. 

“Is your distrust related to my courting of the Princess?” Lotor asked, voice sounding a bit less sure of himself. “Could it be that you are jealous of the interest she takes in me?”

Lance took a hard look at Lotor before softening his expression a little bit. The Prince looked a lot like his sister Veronicas first boyfriend; the poor guy had been uncomfortable for a while until he got to know the family. They had later broken up on friendly terms, and he still came for dinner from time to time.

“Not jealous. Just very protective. I know that she only sees me as a good friend. But that doesn't mean I can't pressure you, to make sure you won't break her heart. Because if you do, you can say goodbye to your kneecaps.”

“I won’t.” Lotor said, frowning a bit. He seemed to speak the truth but Lance knew better than to accept it so easily. Plus, making the other party squirm a bit under his “brother mode” was extremely enjoyable. 

“We’ll see about that. Was it the only thing you needed to know?” 

Lotor seemed to relax some more, apparently satisfied Lance wasn’t going to bust his legs up. He seemed to be curious about what Lance was currently doing. Lance had finished scrubbing Kaltenecker while they were talking, and he was set up to milk the cow, placing the bucket under her udders.

"Perhaps I am a bit curious about what you are going to do.” Lotor said, leaning forward so he could have a better look. Lance just cocked his eyebrow towards him before starting slow on the udders, making warm milk spray in the bucket.

“Well, Kaltenecker is a cow. She makes milk and it accumulates in this part, which can become painful if no one takes care of it. And milk can be used to make a lot of things like butter, cream and milkshakes.”

“It’s barbaric.” Lotor sounded a bit aghast, but nothing that could be compared to Allura and Coran when they had first learned where milk came from. “May I try?”

Lance nodded before letting Lotor sit on the stool.

Suffice to say Lance was feeling proud of himself for teaching something to Lotor. Explaining how to warm his hands (because Kaltenecker was the kind of lady that absolutely despised having her udders worked with cold fingers) and how to milk her gently but firmly; He was also proud to say Lotor was a fast learner. Kaltenecker didn't complain once, not like the time she nearly hooved off Pidge's head because her way of milking was just slightly off. She is a placid animal most of the time, but you were better off not underestimating her.

"You're good at it. Even Keith got the hang of it, albeit not as quickly as you. Must be a Galra thing." Lance said, patting Lotor on the back which earned him a confused glance but thankfully no other reaction.

"Keith? Do you mean the previous Black Paladin?" Lotor asked, rightfully confused.

"Well... to be totally honest with you, this whole Voltron thing had been very confusing since two, three months ago. Before, I was piloting the Blue Lion and Keith was piloting Red. Then Shiro disappeared and we needed to switch around so Voltron could still be, you know? So Keith went in Black, I moved to Red and Allura got chosen to pilot Blue. And that's how it was when we first fought you."

Lotor hummed at that and Lance continued.

"So then we found Shiro again and brought him back, and Keith decided to go with the Blade of Marmora for whatever reason. So Shiro went back to Black and no one else changed because, without Keith to pilot Red, I can't go back to my Blue. He's an ass for leaving us like that but... I don't know, I think I would have left too, if I had been given the choice. But all in all, I miss that mullet. It's not really the same without him here. Like there's a whole piece missing from a six piece puzzle."

"It's always lonely without the one you love."

Huh? Lance was at a loss now. Why would Lotor say that? Lance didn't even like Keith like that. He saw the guy as a brother figure, not a... lover figure. Why would Lotor think that? It baffled Lance and his silence must have been answer enough for the half-galran.

"You don't have to say anything, Lance. After all, your love affair is yours to take care of. But I would advise you contact him and tell him. A missed opportunity will only hurt the both of you and your friendly relationship."

Oh god. Was he looking so pathetic that he needed relationship advice from a shut-in nerd? And why the heck would it be about Keith of all people?! He didn't even love him! He was in a relationship with Shiro! He didn't need any help on that front!

"Wow huh. Thanks? But I'm good. We're good."

"There's no need to be flustered." Lotor added, looking enchanted by the idea of someone else being in love. "Being honest with yourself is something admirable." 

"I'm am being honest." Lance huffed. "And I'm better off without Keith, Thank you very much." He crossed his arms over his chest, turning his back to Lotor. Kaltenecker moo-ed softly at them before turning away, understanding she wouldn't receive much more attention . Lance still patted her neck as an apology, but he couldn't quite face Lotor now. 

"Can we drop this conversation, please?" Lance asked, pleading. "We need to bring the milk to Hunk's laboratory. Then we'll split it, so we can either drink it after curing it or make cheese from it. Or milkshakes. And cream."

He knew he was looking suspicious shifting the conversation around like this, but he also didn't want to tell Lotor he was dating Shiro. Without his boyfriend's knowledge or consent, after clearly stating they wanted to keep it lowkey and personal, shouting it from the rooftops was a very bad move. He didn't know what Lotor saw in his attitude, but he diplomatically dropped the subject altogether. (Lance was still suspicious, but he filed it away to a later date. He'll have to be careful from this point on.)

The rest of the day was spent in relative calm, with the two of them chatting idly, taking the time to know each other, and Lance was right. Lotor was a total nerd. The amount of knowledge he possessed and his bashful attitude at sharing it was the icing on the cake. It was so jarring to see the Galran Emperor laugh under his breath at one of Lance's jokes, or look fascinated by one of Coran's stories. Lance had already heard that particular story three times and could tell it just as well, but hearing the old Alteans enthusiasm, telling the story to someone who collected knowledge, made it enjoyable to hear again.

They were playing some sort of alien chess. Lotor was winning but still helping Lance to play and learn the rules when the team came back to the Castle, tired but whole. No one had injuries and they had even gathered enough food to prepare a good meal, which made Lance salivate in advance. Hunk's cooking was his favorite thing in the whole universe (aside from Shiro), and he had been so fed up with the green goo recently that he was tempted to just eat anything that passed as "food", to the chagrin of his friends. 

He went to help Shiro about the time Hunk took over the kitchen to work his magic. From afar he saw Allura talking to Lotor. She really looked smitten and Lance was glad she found someone at least decent. But he was quickly distracted by Shiro kissing him silly, and wanting a massage to relieve the knots in his back. And who was Lance to refuse? 

When Shiro was finally more relaxed than before, they stepped into the dining room to get their food, the conversation was light and thankfully not Voltron related for once. Unfortunately, it seemed that Lotor didn't quite understand that some conversations were meant to be private, or that Allura loved gossip, especially the romantic kind. Lance was trying not to asphyxiate himself in his plate from embarrassment, as she was giddy with the idea of Lance having a crush. More so, having a crush on Keith!

"I just can't believe it! You were so adamant on him being your true rival and not wanting to get along with him. But now I see it was a ruse to hide your feelings!"

"Yeah, Lance is pretty low key in the romance department if you consider him flirting with every bipedal being a facade." Hunk added, forking his food with excited stabs, looking at Lance like this was the best thing that happened to him since the invention of the Hadron Collider. 

"No way." Pidge pipped up, looking away from her tablet. "Lance? Low key?"

"I kid you not!" Hunk said, "There was that girl, Bea in... 9th grade? He was so smitten with her he brought her flowers and cute notes at the library because he knew no one would see him." 

"Omg..." Lance groaned. It was humiliating to hear Hunk talk about him like he wasn't currently in the same room, eating the meal he had prepared. "Can you guys shut it?!"

"I can't believe you had a crush on Keith the whole time." Shiro exclaimed, looking properly shocked but the crinkle on the corner of his eyes showed he was finding it more funny than believable. 

"Not you too, Shiro! Please have pity on me.... Stop that! I don't have a crush on Keith!"

"Is that why you were so upset he went to the Blades?" Allura asked, eyes sparkling. Uuugh, of course she was enjoying this. She lives for gossip. 

"I was upset because he abandoned us, Allura! Not because I have a..." he faked gagged, kind of grossed out to think of himself being in any kind of romantic situation with someone he considered as close as a brother. "A crush on the guy. He was supposed to stay with us until Shiro was well enough to pilot Black again -but he fucked off into space at the first chance! And Shiro had to come save us, despite not being completely healthy. Which Keith could have done if, you know, he had been there!"

There was a shocked silence as Lance hit the table with his fist, looking angry and for good reasons.

"He could have taken back Red afterwards. Allura could have gone back to pilot the Castle, or I could have let her pilot Blue. But what did he do instead? Nothing! He left us, just when we needed him the most and you seriously think I'm going to forgive him for that? Heck no!"

Lance heaved. Letting his head fall a bit, he was beginning to regret his outburst as soon as he was finished with it. It wasn't fair that Keith left them like that, true; but it also wasn't fair of Lance to rant on that subject to his friends, they didn't deserve that. It had been a genuine question but it had rubbed Lance in all the wrong ways, making him lash out. He shouldn't have yelled, shouldn't have gotten angry. Pidge looked kind of apologetic and Allura was looking chagrined herself. Shame rolled over Lance as he realized he had hurt his friends. He left the dining room after muttering a quick 'I'm not hungry anymore' towards Hunk. It was a shame that he couldn't eat anymore, the food was delicious, but with his throat so tight it would have been difficult to swallow anything. 

He walked aimlessly through the Castle's endless halls, progressively feeling less angry and more like he was about to cry. It wasn't fair, nothing was; from Hunk and Pidge getting to know each other better and thus leaving Lance outside their circle, Keith, who was god knows where and probably getting himself hurt. Shiro whose health was wavering between "kinda alright" and "absolutely terrible." It wasn't fair that he got switched to the Red Lion (a sweet lady herself but her impatient temper didn't quite match his more reflective one) Even though he was slowly adjusting to red,he still struggled a bit with the over sensitive controls. And Allura was already so great at piloting Blue, unlocking her weapons so quickly. It wasn't fair that Shiro struggled piloting Black after being thrust back into the cockpit so soon after barely healing, and he felt guilty because of it. 

It wasn't fair. But life wasn't fair. Better to grit your teeth and bow your head. Better to find an acceptable compromise so you wouldn't get kicked too hard in the nuts by it. 

And usually Lance was great at it. Lance was great at bearing a happy face and sharing funny quips so people around him would smile and forget for a moment that everything could go to shit at any time.. 

But the stress, pain and homesickness were slowly wearing Lance down. He wasn't proud to say it, but more and more now, he found it hard to care about Voltron, the Universe and all the assholes living inside of it. He was fed up with having to save people who would either stab you in the back or be ungrateful. A small part of the population whom voltron had saved from the brink of hell, were grateful to the point of being unhealthy. Lance guessed it came with the territory since the Galra were hell bent on destroying everything, enslaving everyone and generally being dicks. 

If a giant flying robot saved his whole planet and his skinny ass, he would immediately start a religion about it. 

He was shaken out of his thoughts by a warm hand on his back, and the solid presence of Shiro by his side. Lance let out a shaky breath as he leaned against his boyfriend. 

"I'm sorry for what I said earlier." Shiro offered, voice soft and remorseful. "I saw you were getting upset by the conversation and I should have made it stop. Instead I participated and I hurt you. I'm sorry."

Lance sighed again, burying his face in his boyfriend's neck, his arms looping around him for a hug. 

"You definitely should have stopped but... the others are more at fault than you. You at least were considerate enough to come after me. And I shouldn't have yelled either."

"You had all the rights to shout." 

"I'm mad at Keith." Lance sobbed, trying to hold his tears at bay.

"I know..."

"I want him back." He kinda felt like a spoiled kid, but he didn't care at the moment. "I can't stand not knowing what's happening to him."

"Keith... wanted answers..." Shiro tried to say, his tone revealing how their friend's decision had hurt them both. "I won't deny him his right to find them, but I am also aware that how he went about it wasn't the best for everyone."

"It was selfish, you can say it." Lance grumbled, fingers wiping away the rebellious tears that managed to escape the corner of his eye. 

"Maybe selfish is a too strong word." Shiro looked like he wanted to agree with Lance, but because he knew Keith for longer, he had more insight into the how and why their previous red/black paladin behaved the way he did. "I'm pretty sure he misses you as much as you are missing him."

"He better not get himself killed." Lance mumbled, relaxing further into his boyfriend's hold. Or I'll find a way to get him back and kill him myself."

He heard Shiro chuckle and Lance wondered briefly if Lotor knew a way to do so. And if he didn't, maybe he would ask Allura. After all, not even a dead keith should be able to escape his wrath. 

He was about to ask Shiro if he wanted to relax a bit in their room when Pidge called them over the Castle's speakers, requesting their presence at the bridge. They looked at each other with curiosity and began their walk back, not anxious about the situation. It wasn't an alarm, so there wasn't any need to run to their Lions; and Pidge's voice had been relatively normal, albeit excited. A brisk pace was enough and it made Lance fill up with a nervous energy. It had been a while since their missions were not an emergency or a sudden attack, so going in with a plan was exciting. He could tell Shiro felt the same. 

When they arrived at the bridge, Lance decided to ignore the remorseful glances he got from his friends, in order to focus on their new mission. Which he and Shiro quickly learned was a stealth mission.

"We got a call from the Blades, about strange signals coming from a part of space where there shouldn't be anything." Hunk explained, pointing to said space with his fingers on the map. "And it's very interesting because the black hole/supernova beside it hides most signals coming from the facility."

"But it's not as hidden as the Blade's headquarters so I cracked it open pretty quickly." Added Pidge, looking quite smug. "And with Lotor’s data, we managed to learn it’s one of Haggar’s pet projects.”

Lance shared a look with Shiro, noticing the worried look on Shiro’s face. Anything that had to do with Haggar was never good news, and with Shiro’s history with her, this could easily lead to panic attacks and flashbacks. But the look on Shiro’s face had shifted to what Lance had dubbed the ‘Serious Black Paladin Facade’. The one that masked his fears and doubts so the others wouldn’t be troubled while headed for somewhere dangerous. 

Suffice to say, Lance hated it when he saw the facade. He understood why Shiro put it up, but that didn’t mean Lance had to like it. It felt like a bitter lie to him and that had never been a taste he appreciated. 

“Good job, guys.” Shiro said, smiling at them. “Do we know who or what is on site?” 

“There’s no sign of anything as far as we can detect.” Pidge answered, rubbing her eyes from under her glasses. Did she forget to sleep again? Or was she too busy playing with whatever new pet project she had with Hunk? Come to think of it, the yellow paladin was also looking like he needed a good nap.

“But that doesn’t mean it’s abandoned.” Allura said. The look in her eyes spelled trouble, she was determined to take down anything Haggar had her hands in. From what Lance had heard from Coran, Allura was appalled and disgusted by the Witch twisting Altean alchemy. Lotor wasn’t too far behind in his sentiment.

“So what? We sneak in, take whatever information we can and bomb the place?” He asked, earning himself a glare from Pidge. 

“Why is your first instinct to bomb the place?” She asked. “Isn’t that what Keith prefers to do? Do you miss him that much you’re emulating him now?”

“You really want whatever she’s been cooking up there getting out and destroying more lives?”

Pidge winced and averted her eyes before settling them on the map again. Lance closed his eyes and sighed to himself, feeling worse than ever. He didn’t mean to go off on Pidge like that, but he was still raw from his previous explosion. If he had time to cool off before being called, he would have been more level-headed but what was done was done.

Shiro threw him a concerned glance that he decided to ignore and the conversation slowly came back to the subject at hand. It didn't take them too long to plan their way in and they were confident enough to each take their own Lions, still counting on Voltron in case there was something big waiting for them.

The travel had been painfully calm as they used the castle to first be as close as possible (without endangering their only means of getting away and Coran), before finishing the remaining distance in their Lions. Hunk had tried to ease the tension, bless his heart but Lance was still too irritated to say anything or lighten up the atmosphere like he always did. 

It resulted in their stress making the atmosphere seem thick, and nervous sounds resounded on their shared comms. Lotor seemed like the only one unaffected by the internal conflict, as he sat looking vaguely bored in Blue’s cockpit. He could feel the other’s glancing at him but he ignored them again, focused on the task at hand. 

“We’re closing in.” Pidge said, “My scanners are spotting a lot of thermal sources but no movements coming from any of them.” 

“Maybe we’re catching them during their nap?” Lance said, too confused to remember to be angry at them, and old habits had a tendency to die hard. 

“Everyone at the same time? Without even posting guards?” Hunk asked, looking slightly relieved that Lance was talking again. 

“I’m not here to do their job for them.” Lance scoffed, rolling his eyes. In his mind, Red was laughing softly. “Pidge, can you do a scan to see if there are sentries active?”

He preened a little as Shiro murmured a ‘good thinking’.Pidge went back to her console to run another scan. It took less time than he thought it would and Pidge didn’t look satisfied with her results.

“There’s nothing.” Her answer elicited some noises of bewilderment from the team as they approached the station. The building entering their field of view looked huge. It was more imposing than any of the Galra ships they had encountered until now, but the design was sleeker. It was seeping with the feeling of something bad. Lance’s instincts went crazy at the sight of it, warning him of… something.

He didn’t know if it was good or bad, but he had learned to always trust his gut, and now his gut was telling him to stay on his toes because something was going to happen here. Bubbles of anxiety began to rise in his stomach as he glanced at the com feeds, at his friends and his boyfriend, and at Lotor. 

“Keep your guard up.” Shiro said as they approached the hangar bay, everyone muttering their agreement. Lance closed his eyes for a brief moment as they landed on the metallic floor, taking their bayards in hand and coming out of their Lions slowly. There was nothing wrong with being too careful. 

“All clear.” Lance announced, scanning the bay with his rifle at the ready. But there was nothing. No droids, no guards, no alarms. Just an empty space that resonated ominously under their feet as they began to walk to the closest door, a underwhelmingly normal looking elevator. 

The ride up was tense, even if Lance was half occupied with dumb elevator music that he heard too many times, before the cabin stopped and the doors opened into a boring but very long hallway. 

The atmosphere of the place was oppressive, and filled with something that Lance had difficulty putting his finger on. Like a secret birthday party that you knew was going to happen, kind of ruining the surprise but giving the feeling of anticipation and uncertainty..Perhaps that wasn’t the best example to try and explain how he was feeling. But the fact remained, he was tense as if he expected someone to jump out and shout ‘surprise’ and then announce to him that his dog had died.

They walked through the long hallways, and into longer corridors, and after seeing nothing of interest, he forced himself to relax a little. He understood the others who looked very frustrated since there were no signs of anything even remotely useful. Apparently, the whole place was as weirdly made as the Witch’s brain, just long corridors that led to a succession of rooms the size of a warehouse. With no other entrance or exits than from the previous room and into the next room. If someone wanted to go to the other side of the complex, it would be a very, very long walk. 

“Pidge, where are the closest thermal sources?” Allura asked, glancing towards their smallest friend. The tension was coming off of her in waves. Even Lotor didn’t look pleased with their - so far - not discoveries. 

“They’re a few meters away,” Pidge said while waving an arm to their left. “Now that we are close enough, the scan is picking up more things. Like how they are just a few degrees below what’s considered a healthy temperature for most species, and the closest ones to us are mostly Galra. Based on the carbon molecular count, they are clearly humanoid but with the oxygen level the way it is, we can safely assume most, if not all are Galras.”

"So all the purple dots on the map are Galra?" Lotor asked, intrigued by Pidge's color coding. 

"Yep. But also, there's so many of them that there is a big possibility that they are hiding other colored dots so the best is to go see for ourselves."

That was really weird and a bit freaky, for sure. 

“Wait. So, they’re cold and they’re not moving. But definitely alive?” Lance asked, lowering his rifle, trying to put his thoughts in some semblance of order. 

“That’s what she said.” Hunk answered, bending down to look at the scanner data too. Lance kept his snickering to himself, even if a look towards Shiro showed him that their leader was having as much trouble containing his laughter as he was. But that description did ring a bell for Lance, a very uncomfortable and traumatising bell. 

“Cryopods.” He blurted out, earning himself the curious gazes of his teammates. 

“What?” Allura asked, perhaps less eloquently than usual, but she had been caught by surprise by Lance’s outburst. 

“A cryo-facility! That’s why no one is moving and they are colder than normal. We're not in a science facility like the ones we've already checked. We're in her freezer! She doesn't need guards, if no one knows where the place is and everyone is on ice. I'm pretty sure she comes in once or twice to take someone out and then bring them to wherever she is making her evil stuff!"

"That's ridiculous, Lance." Allura said, scolding. 

She rolled her eyes and they started walking again but Hunk slipped near him to whisper.

“Ten Gacks that you’re wrong.”

“Twenty that I’m right.” Lance shot back, just as softly so Allura wouldn’t hear them. “But I’ll drop to fifteen if it’s equally as disturbing.”

“Deal."

They exchanged a quick handshake before getting back into their positions, receiving a knowing look from Pidge. Lance winked at her, letting her know he wasn't mad anymore. He felt that it was unnecessary to alienate his friends over a misunderstanding. It was also tiring to stop himself from interacting with them, and not being a cohesive group during a mission could end up being their downfall. 

It still felt creepy, even if their chatter had lifted the heavy atmosphere from before. Their footsteps echoed dully across the hallways. There was nothing for them to see or do, but walk forward. For a space station, and one used by someone as horrible as Haggar, it was terribly designed. Perhaps that was the point, she probably didn’t need a whole bunch of rooms and the twisted hallways functioned like security checkpoints. 

“Ok, after this door, we’ll see what’s going on in this place.” Pidge said, walking towards the console command center to unlock the door, speaking in a low voice obviously affected by the silence of the place. 

They all looked at each other, readying their weapons and taking a deep breath to steady their nerves. Lance’s shoulders were so tense the muscles on his back were starting to hurt and he rolled them backwards to ease the tension. A quick glance at Shiro showed that he was similarly affected. Lance made a mental note to plan a back massage for him as soon as they had some time to themselves, because he knew Shiro would have a hard time asking him for it. 

The sound of the door opening - that heavy rush of air being displaced by the massive metallic plates - was not enough to cover the sounds of shock they made at the sight in front of them. Hunk sounded a hair away from fainting as they took in the nerve-racking display that was brought to light. 

Rows and rows of crypods were taking up space, as far as the eye could see. Stacked to the ceiling in an awful display, too horrific to tear their eyes away from. Lance was pretty sure he was the first one to enter the room to get a better view of the pods, hearing rather than seeing his friends catch up to him, just as curious as he was. It was the same reaction people had in front of a train accident; awe of the destruction of it, the metal bending in impossible ways from the crash, but also terror for the carnage laying in front of their eyes. 

And it was both very underwhelming yet terrifying to see what the pods contained. 

It hadn’t been, like Lance had theorized, any sort of freezer to keep the people she was kidnapping until she was ready to experiment on them. It was rows and rows of clones, all galra, from what they could see. Maybe five rows horizontal, all the way to the ceiling. All the pods were standing vertically and thankfully they were all without brainwaves. 

Lotor had checked the display panel beside the first row to see if the clones posed any danger to them in the near future, but they were all brainless shells that were only considered “alive” because of their heartbeats. 

“This is incredibly disturbing.” Lance said, eyes scanning the pods, not realizing he was walking further ahead than his friends. He turned his head toward a new pod and saw a face that made his blood run cold. Faces, in fact. 

Because in front of him were several clones of Sendak, idling behind the dark glass, and Lance had never felt so faint before. No matter how many times the team had kicked his ass, Sendak haunted his worst nightmares. The ones where he couldn’t do anything but watch sendak hurt his friends, hurt him or worse, hurt Shiro. Just the sight of him was bringing up bad memories, the cries of pain from both Shiro and Pidge. By looking at this place and seeing that some clones had fewer copies than others, gave him an inkling of an idea about what this place was. 

“Holy shit, that’s Sendak!” The voice by his side made him jump, his heart suffering the fright and beating erratically for a moment. A quick glance showed Pidge looking rather uncomfortable seeing Sendak’s face repeated here, but not as disturbed as he felt. 

“I get it now.” She said, typing frantically on her wrist datapad. “It’s not simply a clone facility; Haggar uses it to keep the Galra that are more valuable to the Empire fresh and in power.”

“Wha-?” Lance tried to ask but his mind was still reeling. Lotor moved closer to them as they resumed walking down the rows to see what else could be here - or rather who. 

“She’s right.” The prince said, his face showing how shocked he was at that statement. “Apart from Sendak, this is Morvok.” He pointed towards a few rows of pods. “And those are Korvar and Trook. All extremely loyal to my father, and who consequently took their fleets when I defeated him in combat.”

“So what is it they do here? Because I’m very creeped out.” Hunk shuddered, still not trusting that the pods would stay closed while they were passing in front of them. 

“I think I know.” Allura proposed, looking like she wanted to be somewhere far away from here. He could understand how she felt, really. “Those are spares. It allows them to fight until their current body is at its limit - either because of the age, an illness or because the body became too damaged. The witch can use her distorted alchemy to implant their consciousness into a new body. Rinse and repeat, as you humans says.”

“We should consider ourselves lucky that she’s only putting one of them out at a time because we would have had more trouble doing our job otherwise.” Pidge said, voice biting and perhaps a little put out by the idea.

“Please, I don’t want to think of several of those assholes running around and ruining shit. One of each is already enough.” Lance grumbled, growing more and more nervous about the idea. He was so glad that he was not trigger happy, because he would have gladly shot every single one of these pods without prompting. He was so glad their end goal was to blow up this place, he never wanted to step foot in here again or let anyone escape. 

Let it be known, he was going to rub it in their faces the fact he had been right. 

Lance began to walk even faster, now, impatient to be out of this place so they could blow it up and never have to think about it ever again. The further ahead he walked, the more clones he saw of species not galra. Further along it became a maelstrom of individuals, some with two rows of each clone, most only having one. Yet it didn't matter because that still meant a dozen copies for each of them. 

“Don’t wander off too far, Lance.” Shiro told him, the comms switching ever so smoothly between close range to long range. Lance smiled at his boyfriend’s concern, finding it ever so endearing. They both knew Lance was capable of kicking ass and was an even scrappier fighter when he was cornered. He could remember very clearly Shiro's face when Lance went at him with his broadsword during training. They both had so much fun that day. 

As he wandered, he gazed from side to side, wanting desperately to leave. There was something churning in his gut again, that same something not quite right that he had felt earlier. He didn’t know what it was and that made him uneasy, made him nervous. Not the same nervous when he thought enemies were going to jump on him, but rather the sinking feeling like nothing was going to be the same way afterwards. 

And, like any sane person, it made him want to run away.

But even if he considered himself sane of mind, the events of the last year and a half had changed him. Previously, he would have turned his back on such a feeling but he now wanted, no, needed to investigate it. His instincts were by far the sharpest of the team's and they relied on him to protect their back. If it was a potential danger, he would feel extremely guilty for not checking it out. 

"You know what this reminds me of?" He suddenly said, trying to break the tension he was feeling. "A very, very old movie Luis showed me when he was taking psychology classes. I don't really remember the plot or whatsoever but I know there were clones in it."

"Galaxy Feud?" Pidge asked, sounding concentrated on something else. It was nice to know she could split her attention enough to indulge him.

"No no, I think I know." Hunk added, cutting off whatever answer Lance was going to make. "The triple trilogy one, with the twins and that twunk who is too angry to be good for the galaxy?"

Lance rolled his eyes at that, scoffing playfully. Those were all bad answers and he listened to them bicker about movies in general for a while, until he realized he was several rooms ahead of them. 

He was fast with his long legs, so it wasn't surprising that he managed to cover a good distance in a dozen minutes. Distractedly looking at the pods since he was actively participating in the conversation that flowed from the clone movie to trying to goad Shiro into admitting his profound love for romantic comedies. So far, it wasn’t working. The man was stubborn as all hell. 

“No but seriously, you can’t deny Love Actually is a classic. It got the flair, the good laugh, all the mushy stuff!”

“You speak about ‘classics’ when you totally ignore “Coming to America.” Hunk scoffed, more well versed in this stuff than Lance was. To be fair, he was more of an action/thriller kind of guy but he liked more subtle and emotional movies in small quantities, if the quality was there. 

"Well excuse me if I don't find Eddie Murphy's type of comedy funny. They're just not my cup of tea! Speaking of tea, have you ever seen a comedy movie from England? _That's_ peak humour." 

“Keith knows every bit of the Monty Python and the Holy Grail movie.” Shiro snorted, pleased to share dirt on Keith rather than sharing his own. The smooth motherfucker. He knew how to avoid embarrassment. “It’s crazy to watch, his lips move at the same time as the dialogue and he can recite a whole monologue, when prompted.”

"Oooh dang it! Do you mean I missed my chance to tease Keith over that? That’s just not… whu-.”

Lance stopped talking. His attention caught by something just out of his line of sight. His brain screeched to a halt. Everything felt covered in molasse, too slow and heavy to correctly breathe. He felt his blood pounding in his ears, covering the call of his friends, covering his own half-words as he tried to make sense of what was now in front of him. 

Lance felt kind of strange, like when he touched the screen of the TV when he was young, or how he felt when one of his limbs regained blood after the circulation had been cut off for too long. It was that kind of painful static, uncomfortable. Something harmful in passing, something fizzing in the tips of his fingers that _he should know was the beginning of a panic attack_ but he couldn’t quite process it in the moment. 

He couldn’t process anything but the faces - the _ face_ \- he could see through the glass of the pod. 

“Shiro...?” He asked, not quite sure if he said it out loud or not. His knees trembled with the weight of his discovery. Distractedly, he could hear his boyfriend calling him, to talk or to make sure he was alright but… Shiro.. Shiro was calling after him. Yet all he could see, all he could manage to process was the face of his boyfriend inside of the pod. Inside a dozen of these pods. 

Tears stung at the corner of his eyes as his mind tried to understand what he was seeing, struggling to put two and two together. Everything was swirling, reeling. All he could see was Shiro, the Shiro in the pods. All he could hear was Shiro, in his helmet trying to get ahold of him - the others equally as worried. 

Spinning, spinning, spinning. 

The Shiro outside, the Shiros inside. That one pod ominously empty, like no one was bothered to make _another one_... And now he felt sick thinking of the implications of that empty pod. Of Shiro, mostly. Shiro who was grabbing his arm before settling his gaze on the pods - on his own face, and becoming so still Lance wondered if he hadn’t changed into stone. 

He had half a mind to reach back to him, to hold him through whatever was going on, but the sound of the other’s footsteps closing in seemed to bring him back to reality, face ashen and eyes crazy. His gaze kept flipping between the pods, Lance and the others in a frantic fashion but none of them were saying anything. Too stunned by what they discovered, probably. 

“Shiro…?” Pidge’s voice was careful and a little low. She was obviously fighting herself from saying anything but it had been enough to start a reaction in Shiro. He took his hand off of Lance’s arm like it was suddenly burning him. Shiro took a step back, breathing heavy, pupils dilated like when he’s on the verge of one of his panic attacks. Lance wants to reach for him, wants to sit him down and talk to him but he blinks and Shiro is already running away. 

The others called after him, trying to make him stop but they made no move to actually go after him. He didn’t know why that irritated him but he saw red. Instincts working faster than his brain could catch up had him scrambling after Shiro, yelling something to the others. He didn’t quite know what, didn’t quite care - and then he was off. 

He knew that he was faster than Shiro, had raced against him in training enough to know that ultimately, he would win against him _if _ Shiro was already worn down from other exercises. The stamina of the man was impressive, and made things difficult in the long run, but Lance wasn’t known to back down so easily. 

He nearly caught Shiro by the elevator leading to the hangar bay, but the door closed before he could do anything. Shiro was hunched over and looked very perturbed; he must have turned off his comms because he didn’t answer Lance’s pleading, didn’t respond to his calling and Lance didn’t hear any of the background noises he was so accustomed to hearing from him. 

To say Lance was scared was an understatement. 

The situation was such a crazy clusterfuck that he still couldn’t understand half of it but, in his heart, he was sure of one thing. Whatever had happened to Shiro wasn’t in anyway his fault and knowing the propensity of his boyfriend to play martyr, Lance was absolutely convinced that he would blame himself for it. Shiro would never hurt them willingly. Shiro was a good person, perhaps sometimes a bit selfish or childishly stubborn in his decisions but nothing was ever ill natured. There was always something else he did that would balance it out, making him so _painfully human_...

And now there was the knowledge that he was perhaps less "human" than they had thought. But who cares?! They were living with three aliens and Keith was half-Galra! It wasn't like they would care if… if Shiro wasn't totally human. 

Waiting for the elevator to come back up, Lance was questioning himself. When did this happen? How and why? 

The few minutes down the elevator didn't clear any of his questions and his pacing inside the small cabin didn't relieve any of his nerves. Worse, his inability to reach his boyfriend and calm him down immediately was just aggravating the situation. He couldn't talk to him, couldn't hold him. Couldn't wipe the tears Lance knew would be there soon. 

It was nerve wracking. 

The ride down was stressful as Lance paced inside of the cabin, pleading to a silent Shiro and ignoring their friends call. He needed to focus on Shiro first and foremost. They were five back there, surely it wouldn’t be too hard for them to make sure this place would blow up like his hatred towards Haggar. There was a small part of his brain that was heartbroken for the other clones that didn’t deserve such treatment, but he squashed it down pretty quickly. They were acting with mercy. He had no idea what Haggar would have down to them but it was better to destroy them while they were still brainless shells. 

He really didn’t want the repercussions of destroying them ‘alive, but asleep’ on his already beaten up mental state.

When the elevator’s door finally opened, Lance watched the Black Lion leave the hangar, leaving him behind. For what purpose, Lance didn’t quite know. Perhaps he thought that if he left, everything would be better? Or maybe he didn’t want his friends to help him deal with the reaction of such a discovery. 

This was all bullshit, Lance thought while running towards Red who was simmering in the back of his head, urging him to go faster. Shiro was a self-sacrificing asshole for sure, but Lance had thought that because they were together now, that Shiro would trust Lance to help him anyway he could. It stung a bit knowing Shiro might not trust him _that much_ in the end. 

It's stung, but Lance wasn't going to cry for that.

Black was a fast Lion, sleek and powerful. But Black had been built to be the condensed counterpart of all four other Lions, which meant that while Black was a beast, all her capacities were equalized to the other four lions that were more specialized. Yellows armor was a plus but lowered its speed, Blue was more versatile but her elemental resistance made her slower. And while Green was the most agile, Red was the fastest of the bunch, trading armor for speed. 

Still, even with all of her speed, Shiro and Black had a good head start. Passing by the Castle without slowing down or contacting Coran. He knew that because the Altean had tried asking Lance about the situation when he sped past the Castle as well, hot on Shiro’s tail. 

“Stop being stubborn, Shiro! Answer me!” No answer, just the quickly fading voices of the others. Lance growled at that and quickly shut off that part of his communicator, needing to concentrate on Shiro and only Shiro, and not get distracted by his friend’s conversations. “Please, Shiro. Fleeing will not resolve anything! We just need to talk about it!” 

Lance felt more and more distressed by the lack of response from his boyfriend. Black wasn’t showing any signs of decelerating either, which made Lance tear up yet again. Shiro _had_ to be stuck in his head, there was no other reason why he wouldn’t say anything. It was rare that it happened, but sometimes he would tremble in a corner, eyes unfocused and lash out at whomever tried to shake him out of it. They quickly learned that only time and a peaceful atmosphere were helpful in times like that. 

Neither was available in that moment, not with the pressure of his Lion in his head. Lance felt the warmth spreading from the back of his neck down his back. It was so different to be comforted by red then from his Ol’ Blue who had been the feeling of velvet smoothing over his arms, strange but not quite unpleasant. Reds energy made him feel like all he could do - _ all he wanted to do_ was speed up, faster until light was stretching through the glass like rotoscoped flecks of paint. Like tree trunks stretching into infinity.

It wouldn’t do any good if he did, though. There was no way He and Red would be able to overpower Black, even if they did catch up to them. The arms of voltron were fast and agile,designed to be fluid in movement. Legs didn’t need to be lithe and zippy. They needed to balance out, hold down the fort and kick hard. Black was the torso, she would have no problem taking down Red, and holding them down. If it had been Blue, perhaps he would have had more of a chance. But he was the Red Paladin now, and he had to make do. Had to at least count the blessings of having a Lion that wasn’t outrun by their leader.

His throat was becoming parched from trying to reach Shiro, from trying to talk him down, but it was without results. Shiro was still flying ahead of him, deaf to his pleadings, stuck inside of his head. 

Lance growled as he pushed Red faster, catching up to Black little by little as they approached a new solar system. If Lance didn’t have his mind set on getting to the man he loved, he would have loved to take a look at the two planets and the blue stars. Would have loved trying to goad Hunk into a race across the asteroid belt of the largest planet and maybe laugh it all off. 

But Lance is definitely not laughing when he sees Black dive down inside the asteroid belt. He scrambles to follow suit, gritting his teeth at Shiro’s not so ambiguous attempt to shake him off, but Lance had never backed down. Not when it was Keith who did stupid stunts and goaded him into them, (because Lance hadn’t been the only one doing it. Keith had at least 35% to do with them being so competitively friendly with each other. But it was fun, for both of them.) No way was he backing down, not now when Shiro needed him.

Lance was thankful that the asteroid belt was busy enough for Black to need to slow down as he twirled beside the Lion, glancing worriedly towards the head where Shiro was. Where Shiro was still ignoring his pleas. Now in such close proximity, Red was able to pull up the video feeds and look at Shiro. 

The man was indeed white as a sheet and his eyes seemed pretty much unfocused from Lance’s point of view. His shoulders were taunt, his jaw clenched tight and it seemed like he was trembling ever so slightly. 

“Shiro? Please... look at me baby. Just… Just look at me, you don’t have to stop piloting, I just want you to move your head a little bit to the right.” Lance was speaking softly as not to make it worse for Shiro. Loud noises would only make it worse, he assumed. “You need to breathe baby. Can you move your left fingers for me? I’m sure Black would feel better if you stopped clenching her controls so tightly.”

He continued to talk to Shiro, trying to get him to relax and only paying the minimum amount of attention needed to pilot red so they didn't crash. He was so focused on his boyfriend, and his immediate line of sight that he didn’t see an alert pop-up on the other side of the controls. Didn’t see the alarm warning him of the weapons system locking onto him.

He was still focused on reassuring Shiro when the other man suddenly perked up. He looked at his own console before glancing worriedly towards Lance’s communication feed, mouth open as of to say something. 

Lance never got to hear whatever it was. A violent collision made Red spin off course and brutally bounce on an asteroid, making him cry out as the safety belt sharply caught him from being thrown out of his seat, no doubt bruising him. He never had a chance to recover as a second hit pierced literally through Red’s flank, and the asteroid he was clinging to, sending them flying away yet again. There was a sharp electric sound as a part of the console on his right began to spark and fume, the communication feed abruptly shutting down. Red’s internal lights were fizzling on and off, making Lance extremely worried. He tested the controls in a hurry. Nothing was responding to him, the propulsors were weakly trying to compensate for his wild trajectory. 

Through the blurry window, Lance could see Black avoiding blue lasers without much elegance, probably too focused on trying to reach Lance and Red to do much about it. But Lance was still here, despite his console sparking furiously and he could see that his weapons system was still online, which was a good thing. He probably had two shots before it consumed all the power he still had in Red but if he aimed correctly, he could probably take down whatever was currently shooting them. 

He was glad Red had stopped spinning because it gave him a clear view to whatever was shooting at them but Black spinning around was definitely not helping. Lance spotted a white glint several asteroids away before a blue laser shot from it. It seemed like the only one there, probably an automatic defense system, that clearly wasn’t seeing them as allies. 

He only had one chance, Red’s momentum taking them further and further away from Black and Shiro. He aimed carefully, thanking all the gods that he didn’t have to rely on Red’s tail canon and could use the main one in her mouth.The tail one wasn’t as precise and didn’t have the same range. He only had to move Red’s head a degree to the right before he shot. 

He could see Black avoid his shot and weave around another set of asteroids that had been disturbed by Red’s previous impact, before a white light engulfed several of them as the defense mechanism exploded, flinging pieces of asteroid around. With the threat dealt with, Lance let out a shaky breath before his current situation dawned on him. Since he had shot, the kick back was sending Red out of the asteroid belt towards the planet before getting caught in its gravitational pull. 

The power shut down suddenly, Red’s screen becoming pitch back and cutting off his view from outside. Lance’s stomach was becoming uncomfortable, feeling the effects of gravity but made light as a feather from the sensation of falling, falling, falling… his vision was spotted black as the safety belt dug deep into his chest, his armor and under armor doing their best to protect him from the extreme pressure changes all around him. 

Impact. 

He must have blacked out for a moment because all he could hear was the sparking of electronics all around him and pained whimpers. The wind was whistling from somewhere in his Lion,the door must have cracked open ever so slightly. His vision was swimming, blurred and spotted with black as he tried to move his head around, his instincts screaming at him to look for Shiro, still. 

He couldn’t find him. The screen was black and cracked, hissing furiously at him and the pain from his neck was making him feel nauseous. It wasn’t any worse than his head, he felt like he had been beaten over the head by someone very large and very pissed off. But the worst part was the pain in his left leg. It was stuck between his chair and the dented, caved in part of Red’s console. He could feel the pain in waves, a scorching white heat and then a blissfully cool numbness, on and off like a sick game of peek-a-boo. 

The whimpers were his, too, he realized a bit later, tears making their slow way down his cheeks and to his mouth in an uncomfortable snail trail. He didn’t quite have enough air in his lungs to scream in pain, the way he was pressed forward in the seatbelt was making his ribs ache. They didn’t _feel_ broken, so he hoped they were just bruised. He preferred to be able to breath, even slightly, if he had to extricate himself out of the hot mess he was in. 

He took a deep breath through his nose, leaning back against the chair. His neck was straining, the whiplash had done some damage there, and placed his hands against the paneling over his leg, pushing with all his strength. Admittedly, it didn’t go very well. It only resulted in him shouting in pain, body wracked with shudders that only made the pain in his leg far worse. 

His head spun like crazy, and he had to throw his torso to the side when violent retching shook his frame. He was glad he had not actually thrown up, but his body was hating him more after the sudden movements. 

By now Lance realized several things: firstly, Red was not responding and dark, which she never did even when resting in her hangar. There had always been the comfortable simmer of her in the back of his head. Secondly, he was unable to call for help, even with his helmet. There was a huge possibility it had been damaged as well. Thirdly, he was hurt and unable to move. He had no idea where Shiro was and no idea if Shiro was in a good enough mindset to realize Lance wasn’t after him anymore. Perhaps he was already light years away, oblivious to his predicament.

No. Lance was not going to fall down that rabbit hole. Shiro would soon catch on to the fact that Lance wasn't behind him and come back to see why. All Lance had to do was wait, breathe and stop his brain from panicking. 

He jerked awake. A loud scraping sound resonated inside of Red, grating in his ears and making him wince. The door was at his back and he wasn’t in any shape to twist around and look at it, especially when his sight was filling with spots. The little guy hammering inside his head was back from his break it seemed, and was taking great pleasure in making Lance miserable. 

He whimpered, hands straining from his sides when they tentatively rose to support his head, the noise behind him didn’t stop. He swore he could hear his name but it was mixing with the ringing in his ears and the pained gasps he was making after shifting his left leg ever so slightly. Bile rose up from his stomach and he leaned forward to stop it from going further up. He seriously didn’t need to be puking on himself. 

“Lance?!” The voice was panicked and laced with exhaustion and Lance perked up a little. Hearing it made tears well up in his eyes. 

“Shiro...” he choked out, fighting against the seatbelt. If he could at least take it off… but even then, how would he be able to get to Shiro? 

“Lance! The door is stuck. I’m going to try and pry it open, please say something. Can you tell me how hurt you are?”

Say something? He was kidding, right? He had been saying a lot of things before but had Shiro listened to any of it? Of course, no… But now he wanted Lance to talk? Ok, he’d talk. 

“Oh now you want to talk? Snapped out of your egoistic runaway phase yet? That’s just perfect! Now I understand how Keith must feel, always having to save your ass.” 

“Lance?” Shiro sounded shocked, and in his current state, Lance didn’t quite know if he liked it; He was pissed at him. No he wasn’t, he was frustrated by the situation and his headache wasn’t helping at all. Was this how Shiro felt whenever he had a headache too strong to deal with by himself? “Did you hit your head?” The question was careful and perhaps said with a bit too much worry, but Lance only snorted. 

“I feel like an omelet, thank you.” He snarked back, hands still trying to take off his seatbelt. “I just need to ask Red to turn the gas on low to cook me gently - Oh wait she can’t! She’s broken and non responding! Fantastic!” 

He could hear more noises behind him but he didn’t mind. He felt drowsy and talking wasn’t helping him in any way. He was already having trouble keeping his eyes open…

The sudden feeling of a hand on his shoulder made him jump and cry out in pain. All of his injuries flaring up angrily at him. He heard a soothing noise on his right side and felt hands taking off his helmet before fingers were running through his hair, softly. The other hand went to his cheek to rub away the tears. Lance opens his eyes to see Shiro. Shiro but not Shiro, his brain supplied, worried and terrified and now Lance was ready to puke. That look wasn’t an expression he liked on Shiro’s face, at all. 

“You really are in bad shape.” Shiro sighed, sagging a little. Eyes going to Lance’s left leg where it was still stuck. A grimace creased Shiro’s face as he estimated the damage, and Lance wanted to cry more. He wanted to tell Shiro that everything was going to be ok. He had _just_ been angry with Shiro and now he was tearing up? He didn’t question it but it was inconsistent as all hell and he didn’t like it one bit. 

“Apart from your leg, I can definitively say you got a serious concussion.” Shiro added, his hand never leaving Lance’s hair. It was soothing, in a way. “Once I get you out of there, I’ll bring you to Black, then I’ll get you to the Castle so you can get in a healing pod, ok?” 

Lance wasn’t quite ok with it, because it sounded like Shiro wanted to bail on him again, as soon as he was safe and that was definitely something he didn’t want to happen. Was Shiro really going to leave him? He didn’t want him to go. 

“Ok, I’m counting to three, then I’ll push the console and free your leg. Brace yourself for the pain.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Lance grumbled, fingers gripping his chair so tight his they went white. He felt Shiro’s gaze on him before he began his countdown and the pain that followed was so intense, so all consuming he couldn’t help but gladly accept the relief unconsciousness provided him. Sweet, blessed oblivion.

►------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------◄

Everything was hurting. His whole body… his head and every muscle throbbed in his half conscious state. He knew he was lying on his back on something a bit hard but when his fingers flexed, he didn't feel the ground itself. A blanket maybe? But not a mattress. It was too thin for that. 

He was thankful for it because in his current state he didn't know if he had enough in him to regulate his temperature correctly. 

There was… someone humming, someone singing a song half-assedly. He knew the lyrics but couldn't… couldn't place the voice. But if he could just hear the song… it went like…

_Do I attract you?_  
Do I repulse you with my queasy smile?  
Am I too dirty?  
Am I too flirty?  
Do I like what you like? 

It felt so familiar. Like he had heard it before a lot of times but couldn't place it anywhere….

_How can I help it?_  
How can I help it?  
How can I help what you think?  
Hello, my baby  
Hello, my baby  
Putting my life on the brink  
Why don't you like me?  
Why don't you like me?  
Why don't you like yourself? 

It was on the radio, he decided. He had heard that music on the radio a lot. He knew Maria had loved to dance to it and his mom had been singing the lyrics under her breath while cooking. 

_So I tried a little Freddie_  
I've gone identity mad!  
I could be brown,  
I could be blue,  
I could be violet sky,  
I could be hurtful,  
I could be purple,  
I could be anything you like. 

“I'm glad you're awake enough to sing.” A voice on his right startled Lance, making him open his eyes with some efforts.

He hadn't been aware that it had been him who was singing but … his throat felt a bit rough now. He didn't even know why he had been singing until the voice - Shiro, it was Shiro - pointed it out.

“Th’ts not th’ Castl’.” Lance slurred, blinking wildly. His neck was supported by something soft, akin to a pillow and his leg was warm and itchy. He supposed it was set in some sort of cast. His chest also seemed itchy and there was a smell vaguely similar to pepper, certainly coming from some sort of balm. 

“I’m sorry, Lance.” Lance frowned at Shiro’s tone, but didn’t comment on it. His brain was far too loopy at the moment. 

“After getting you out of Red, I tried to get back to Black but she was not responding to me. She let me enter with you but nothing else. Her console is dark and without her, with how damaged Red is, we can’t go back to the Castle or contact the others.”

Oh. The situation was _that_ bad, huh. But wherever Lance looked in his reduced line of sight, he couldn’t find anything familiar. There was nothing of the smooth, metallic curves of the Lion’s belly, and it didn’t look like a cave to him. Was that fabric above his head? 

Shiro must have followed his line of sight because he smiled wryly at Lance, before using one of his hands to smooth the rebellious curls on Lance’s head. 

“Apparently, Red’s sudden crash was impressive and curious enough for the natives to change their migration route and come investigate.” He chuckled a little, looking at the tent around them. “They were kind of skittish at first, but when I told them you were hurt, they jumped to help. And apparently Black was kind enough to raise her particle shield so the Sieddi wouldn’t have to deal with the frequent sandstorms. They were grateful for it, installing tents for their young, their sick and their elders as some show of trust. They even lent us the tent we’re in.”

It was nice to hear Shiro talk so freely like this, even if Lance knew there was still something that was bothering him. He was tired and didn’t really want to do anything else but go back to sleep but Shiro needed him, just as much as he needed Shiro. 

“Are you ok, Shiro?” He asked hesitantly. His heart sank, seeing his boyfriend grimace and turn his head away from him. He didn’t say anything for a minute before answering with a strangled voice. 

“Please stop calling me that.” Lance frowned but waited for more from him. “You saw it, in the facility, right? I’m… I’m not… Shiro. I’m not the one who thought I was. _I’m_ not the one I thought I was. That would explain a lot of things, actually.” He kinda laughed at that, in a self deprecating tone that made Lance want to hit him over the head. Which he would have done if he weren’t so injured. 

“Yeah, I saw.” Is all he said, preferring to goad more from his boyfriend. 

“I’m not human.” He said with a sad realization, and it made lance’s heart break just a little more. “I was grown in a tube then spat out to infiltrate you and then… then what? Hurt you, I’d guess. That was one of the witch’s facilities, I’m pretty sure she wasn’t making clones to have a fucking tea party.”

Lance snorted at that, earning himself a half heated glare from Shi- from his boyfriend. 

“Would you like a scone, miss Byrn?” Lance jokingly said, lifting a hand with the pinky raised high and mocking. “Perhaps you will choke on them like on Miss Harper’s husband?” 

He was glad to hear his boyfriend snicker at that, his sense of humour had not gone down the drain. Good. 

“The scones are a little bit too dry, miss Cooper. Just like your heart, it seems.” Shi- his boyfriend answered back, imitating perfectly a young english lady, all proper and such. “Lance, this is supposed to be a serious conversation.” Aaand his tone was back with the sad lilt. Not great. 

“I have immunity.” He answered back, shuffling a little to get a better look at Shiro. “I got a concussion. You’re the one who said it.” He heard Shiro sigh but Lance wasn’t going to let his turn to speak go to waste. “And I needed to stop you from thinking badly about yourself.”

“You don’t listen, do you Lance? I’m a _clone_. Made by the worst person in the universe. I’m pretty sure I’m not even a year old! There’s no way I’ve been let out of that tube for nothing. My orders were probably to disrupt Voltron and eliminate you.”

“Did you?” Lance asked, wishing Shiro could just fucking _see_.

“No. Not yet. I’m sure it was just a question of time. To wait for the perfect moment.”

“You never hurt any of us. You came back to us, hurt and alone and we helped you. Whoever you are, whatever you are, Shiro.”

“I said-”

“Well how else am I going to call my stupid boyfriend?!” Lance interjected, wincing as his outburst woke up the pain in his chest. There was some shuffling at the entrance of the tent, a sound like harp cords being pinched in a soft melody before a hand pulled the fabric making the ‘door’ aside and entering, snout first. 

The Sieddi - Sieddus? Siedd? - were strikingly similar to the fennec, with large ears and soft beige colors. This ones black dotted eyes looked a bit too smug for such a small creature. It - she, he, they? - were wearing loose fitting clothes, similar to what the kurogo were wearing in the old Kabuki plays but in a soft pink instead of black. 

“Do you need assistance?” They asked, blinking three set of eyes at the same time. “Food? Drinks? More medicines?”

"Do you have something to treat stubbornness?” Lance asked, receiving an adorable shift from the Sieddi’s ears. “My friend here doesn’t want to listen to reason, and I can’t smack him from not listening to me.”

The Sieddi let out a heartfelt laugh at that, shuffling inside the tent to set down their doctors kit and began assembling some complicated looking apparatus. Shiro didn’t seem worried about it so Lance let it pass. For now. 

“We do not, sadly. All we can do is to persevere in making our mate listen to reason, even if it looks like a _masxi_. Something appearing far away in the dunes.”

“We call that a mirage.” Shiro said, looking like he was going to pout at any moment. Two on one didn’t seem fair but Lance was hurt, he needed assistance!

“You just need to be persistent, _aga_.” They patted Lance’s cheek with their hand/paw, their beaned fingers reminding Lance of his parent’s cats. “I am Thystictoate.”

“Lance.” He said, because he was polite. Thystictoate smiled, ears perking up before they put a weird apparatus on their hand. It looked like a glove - or pieces of a glove, with only the fingertips connected to the main part by thread like chains. A soft glowing gem was embedded in the palm. They gestured for Lance to relax before passing their gloved hand above his body before focusing it on his head. 

“Rest has done you some good.” They said before taking off their weird glove with care. “And I am glad out medicine was compatible with your species enough to alleviate the pain in your ribs. And now that you are awake, I will ask someone to bring you food.”

Lance hummed in approbation, feeling his eyes grow heavy. He was on the verge of snoozing again when he heard his boyfriend shift beside him and stand up, making Lance frown in his semi-unconscious state. 

"Where do you think you're going?" He snapped, opening one of his eyes to see "Shiro" wince in shame. "I believe our discussion is not finished."

"I wanted to let you rest." He answered in a low voice, making Lance strain to hear him. "Healing takes a toll on your body-"

"And you being a total jerk is stressing me out! You don’t stress the injured, Shiro!”

“I told you not to call me that.” “Shiro” said after a moment, sitting on the ground a few steps from Lance. “I’m a clone! I am not Shiro and I’m pretty sure I don’t deserve to be called that now that we know.”

“You deserve to have your own name.” Lance agreed, receiving an odd look from his boyfriend. 

“And _I’m_ the stubborn one? I’m not human. I’m just… a tool, made for evil.”

Lance growled at that, fighting his body to sit himself upright and shaking from the pain in his chest. 

“Are you stupid?!”

“Lance-”

“Don’t ‘Lance’ me, asshole! I have plenty of evidence that you are a human being and not a tool! Stop calling yourself that, stop _thinking_ about yourself like that! You have emotions, you have dreams, fears! That makes you alive! Would a ‘tool made for evil’ be able to love?!” 

“I’m a replica with the original’s memory, of course I was going to have all of it. I wasn’t supposed to raise suspicion.”

“I can’t handle hearing you talk so badly about yourself. Why are you trying so hard to make me stop loving you?” Lance asked, voice breaking on a whisper, nearly choking on a sob. It was so difficult to see someone he loved and respected speak so badly of himself.

“That’s not me you love, it’s Shiro, the real one-”

“I don’t care about Shiro!” Lance shouted, bunching the light blanket in a death grip. “I’m pretty sure we’re talking about you, not him!”

“But-”

“A-bub-bub-! Stop trying to weasel your way out of me chewing you out for your stupidity! I’m not finished talking.” 

Lance exhaled, sagging forward. His ribs were beginning to ache more than he could handle. He felt “Shiro’s” hand on his shoulders, coaxing him to lie down again and a hand in his hair, smoothing it back. It felt so strikingly like what Lance did for him, whenever he had his migraines. 

“Thank you.” He mumbled, hearing a sigh from “Shiro”. He quickly regained his train of thought. “Who did I try to drown on Bhekvu?” Lance asked.

“Me…?” He said pretty hesitantly. 

“And who did I managed to coax into jumping on the back of a horse… thing on Lliguruta? Who stopped me from causing a diplomatic incident on Phillon I5Z2? Who said all those embarrassing things about us on the Field of Truth in Guahines? Who played Monsters and Mana with me all those nights, bothering Coran because Paladin was the only class possible?”

There was a moment of silence before Shiro managed to choke out some answers, albeit with difficulties and far more emotionally than he had thought. 

“Me…”

“And who did I confess my love to, in a way that was way too awkward and not at all planned?”

“That was me…” Tears were streaming silently down his cheeks. He kept his hand in Lance’s hair, the other one finding Lance’s hand to intertwine their fingers. 

“It wasn’t ‘Shiro’ I confessed to, or did all those silly things with.” Lance confirmed, his muscles relaxing now that his boyfriend was at least acknowledging his own existence. “It was you, and you only. _You_ are part of Voltron. _You_ are a part of our little family, Haggar be damned.”

“But I’m not… I’m not Shiro.” He said in a whisper, averting his eyes. 

“I’m not asking you to _be Shiro_, dumdum. Although… I guess I can’t call you Takashi anymore, huh. But you’re still a very stubborn Shirogane, that’s for sure.”

“You’re silly.” He chuckled, his thumb caressing the back of Lance’s hand. 

“Maybe. But you still need a name. I can’t keep calling you “my boyfriend” or “not Shiro”, it’s going to make me crazy.”

“Shiro” hummed in agreement. His gaze getting lost in the thread of the tent’s wall as he thought about the question. Lance let him, feeling his eyes close against his will and a yawn trying to break through. He was so tired, and his ribs were aching from his earlier outburst. 

He must have dozed off because when his boyfriend shook him awake, there was food waiting for him on a tray and “Shiro” was tapping his fingers nervously. 

“Food time?” Lance asked, blinking wildly as he tried to make his vision focus. 

“It’s some sort of gazpacho.” Was all he got for an answer as the bowl was lifted in front of his lips, giving him no choice but to drink it. The cold soup was delicious, tasting like some sort of ratatouille with more mint and a citrus aftertaste. It was certainly tasty, but probably not to everyone’s taste. 

“Ryou.” Was all his boyfriend said while Lance was drinking. Lance nearly cried from the soft, hesitant tone in which it had been said. Would he be like that from now on? Would Ryou always be hesitant to see himself as a person? And a person deserving of being loved for more than just being the copy of someone else? Whatever the answer to those questions were, Lance vowed to help him overcome it. He would kick the ass of anyone who dared to belittle him for something that he never had a say in. 

“I love it.” He simply said, keeping his worries to himself. “Ryou Shirogane. Mighty paladin.”

Warmth spread inside of his chest when Ryou laughed at his little quip. The soft smile on his face was quickly smooched by his boyfriend. 

“No wait, careful with the bowl!” Lance laughed. Some of it had spilled on his blanket before Ryou corrected himself and put the bowl down despite Lance’s hungry protests. But Lance would never stop his boyfriend from being handsy with him. It was always a delight seeing him act outside of his role as leader of Voltron, without the stress and danger who went with the title. 

“I love you so much.” Ryou said, squishing Lance’s face between both his hands, which he knew always annoyed Lance because ‘he wasn’t putty and that will make his skin oily and sagging’. 

“If you loved me, you’d let me finish my food.” Lance whined, sticking his tongue out for better effect, but quickly pulling it back into his mouth before Ryou could pull on it. Savage. 

“Silly me, can’t forget the most important things.” Ryou answered, kissing Lance again quickly before giving him the bowl back. He let Lance drink by himself, which he complained about a little. Apparently, he didn't get coddled if he could be humorous. Jerk. 

After Lance finished eating, they started talking about random subjects, carefully avoiding the subject of Ryou’s role in Voltron. Several Sieddi came and went, checking on Lance and bringing more food or little trinkets they found in the sand. A story teller came by their tent with a skulk of young ones in tow. Prefering to bring their evening tradition to the paladins rather than leaving them out of the event. 

Both Lance and Ryou thanked the Speaker profusely, an older looking Sieddi - with a soft yellow outfit instead of a pink one - named Vyepsate. They were told not to worry about it as they were always happy to share what they had with strangers, especially those who fell from the sky. 

The story of the night had apparently been a very popular one with the kids. It was a tale about a thief who stole the moon for himself, condemning the world to lose most of its color until a very ingenious couple used the highest mountain to place the asteroid belt in the sky. The story was finished too soon for Lance’s taste, but despite his and the kids complaints, the Speaker had refused to tell another one. A story per dusk was the rule. 

Lance refused to admit he was pouting until Ryou laid down beside him for the night. His boyfriend knew how to make him smile again. They went to sleep exhausted mentally but satisfied. 

Their morning began abruptly as a roar shook them awake. It was profound and mighty, shaking them to the core. Ryou left Lance inside their tent to go check it out, worried by the squeaks coming from the Sieddii. He came back several minutes later, a relieved expression on his face. Black was responding to him again and her console was back in working order, allowing them to go back to the Castle that was currently gravitating around the planet, waiting for them. Why nobody had tried to come down to help them was a mystery. But Lance wasn’t complaining, not when there were teary goodbyes with the adorable fennec people and tiny children clinging to his blanket - that he had been allowed to keep as a gift. 

Lance was totally sniffling under the blanket as Black gripped the mangled form of Red in her grip, flying off into the thermosphere and back into the asteroid belt, luckily without incident. The defense system Lance had destroyed must have been the only one left, and he felt a bit guilty since the Sieddi would probably be defenseless from now on. 

The rest of the ride went terribly fast for him and he was shaken from a short nap by Black landing inside the hangar, and Ryou’s shaky exhale. Lance knew he would be terribly nervous, especially after fleeing like he had, but looking at him now, Lance could only see the unshakable trust he had in his friends. 

Hunk was the first to enter with Coran, sobbing and asking questions Lance half-listened to, still keeping an eye on Ryou and watching Pidge throw herself at him for a hug. Ryou’s mask cracked a little and Lance could see how relieved he was to still be accepted. Pidge was chewing his ear off about running away without a perfectly viable reason. Apparently “thinking his family wouldn’t accept him _just_ because he was a clone” wasn’t flying with her. 

“Frankly, it shows how little you trusted us.” She said, finishing her scolding. “I mean, what the heck, dude. You’d really think we were going to demonize you because you were made in a tube?”

“Number five is right.” Coran said still kneeling beside Lance. “It is very clear you were much more a victim of Haggar than an accomplice.”

“Truly, it shows a lack of faith in us.” Allura added, arms crossed and a scolding look on her face. She didn’t look mad, more worried and relieved at the same time which was truly a strange combination. “We know you are a good person. A good man. Black wouldn’t have let you pilot her if you weren’t and we would have picked up your ‘evil’ nature when we meld to form Voltron.”

“Which was not the case, by the way.” Hunk said, looking torn because he couldn’t hug Lance because of his ribs, but also because he didn’t want to leave Lance’s side to go hug Ryou. “But fear can make people do crazy things, so it’s all good.”

“Right.” Ryou sighed with relief, sagging a little bit in Pidge’s hold. Apparently she had decided than nothing else but a koala hug was good enough. Allura joined it on the hugging and it looked like Ryou was going to cry from all the validation and love thrown his way. 

“But maybe next time, don’t send a message saying “Lance and I need to have a talk, we’ll come home as soon as it’s over”. You can have your ‘talk’ in the Castle rather than a random planet.” scolded pidge

Lance’s eyebrow shot right above his hairline with surprise and Ryou looked as confused as he was. He didn’t know his boyfriend had sent a message. And judging by his face, neither did he. 

“What are you talking about?” Ryou asked Pidge, detaching her from him as he frowned, puzzled by the information. “Black’s consoles were all off after I rescued Lance from his Lion. She only reactivated this morning, allowing us to come back.”

They all looked at each other with perplexity, clearly not expecting that answer. While he couldn’t account for Ryou’s actions while he was unconscious, he could provide an alibi for the rest of the time. He had enough trust in his boyfriend to not question him, especially with his current confused expression. 

“So who did it?” Hunk asked, breaking the silence. “If Shiro-”

“It’s Ryou now.” Lance whispered to him to correct his honest mistake. 

“If Ryou wasn’t the one who sent the message, then who did? Because it clearly came from Black and it was signed Shiro.”

“Can confirm it.” Pidge said, fidgeting with her glasses. “The code you - or rather whomever sent the message, was clearly yours, to the last digit and no one besides us knows it. So unless Lance did it, which is highly improbable then…”

“Then Black must have sent it herself.” Allura mused, her hand caressing idly the top of the chair. “Signing it with the code must have been for us not to worry too much. Nevertheless, what bothers me is that the Lions aren’t really known for complex speech. Their main communication form resides in emotion, sensation and words as a last support for their point.”

“Or someone else gave the message to Black so she could send it for them.” Lance said, ready to laugh his idea off as just a random idea. But then it struck him, rather heavily. His intuitions had never failed him, except when a pretty face had been involved. (which hadn’t been as often as everyone said anyway.) “Someone close to the Black Lion, someone who knew the Black Paladin’s code and someone who _apparently_ seemed very intent on having us talk the situation through.”

“You’re not thinking…” Allura choked up on her words, looking at Black’s console in bewilderment. 

“Wait, I think I’m lost.” Whined Hunk who seemed as frazzled as Ryou was. 

“No, I think I get it!” Pidge exclaimed. “Holy shit why didn’t we think of it before? When we met Ulaz, and Shiro had to fight Zarkon for the Black Lion’s control, he did it in what he called the ‘mindspace’. So if we stick to Black’s overprotectiveness, then…”

“Then “Shiro” is still in there. He has not disappeared. He’s been stuck inside the mindscape all this time.” Ryou gasped, looking scandalized but also very excited, before he deflated. “But you said you didn’t find a body in Black after Zarkon’s attack. So… Wouldn't that mean Shiro… died, back then?”

That put a damper on their excitement, everyone looking disappointed. Ryou perhaps the most, probably feeling guilty for being here and not Shiro.

“In any case, this is something we should talk about after putting Lance in a healing pod, don’t you think?” Allura asked.

Everyone shook of the shock and they exited the Black Lion. Hunk was carrying Lance as an alternative to hugging him. The trip to the room with the healing pod was a short and silent one. They were all saddened by the news about Shiro but were trying to stay positive about it.

The chill air of the healing pod was the last thing Lance felt before slipping into a dreamless sleep. 

►------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------◄

There’s a brief moment inside the healing pod, between ‘waking up’ and suddenly having your weight back, before your being shoved on your merry way out of the healing pod, all healthy. In all honesty, Lance was perhaps the most accustomed to the sudden shift due to the amount of time he spent inside of one. He had learned when exactly to tip his torso backward to avoid face planting and when to brace with your knees so you don't get sent careening in a headless chicken run. 

Most times though, there was someone in the room waiting for him - for anyone hurt badly enough to require a healing pod, and this time was no exception. Large arms engulfed him in a hug as soon as he was freed from the confines of the pod. The large chest and warmth screamed Hunk and Lance melted into the hug. He was very happy to be able to withstand such a powerful hug from his best friend without pain. 

“Hey buddy.” He mumbled in his chest, shifting a little so he wasn’t at risk of suffocation. 

“Good to see you well.” Hunk said, shifting so Lance could lean on him as they walked to the dining room where food was waiting for him. Being in a healing pod was nice and dandy but it always left them ravenous afterwards, no matter the length of time they were actually inside of one.

Hunk sat Lance down at the table before going to the fridge to fetch a plate specially premade for lance. The plate wasn’t filled with food goo, but with something resembling pizza rolls, small enough to eat in one bite and tasted like Filete Urugyayo which was definitely a new recipe. But he was glad Hunk had taken the time to cook him something that reminded Lance of his family. He was getting teary about it, too.

“The food is so good, Hunk. You surpassed yourself with this one.”

“Thanks.” He said with a satisfied smile, before turning serious again. “So, you’ve been in the pod for nearly three days, which gave us the time to have news to give to you. Some news, good news and more news.”

“I… don’t really like how you presented that.” Lance said, frowning at Hunk between bites. “You suck at it, that’s why you weren’t chosen in the journal club.”

“The…. the Garrison never had a journal club? But fair enough."

"Alright." Lance sighed. "Lay it on me."

“First bit of news. We’ve studied the message that was sent through the Black Lion and as we hypothesized, Shiro or rather his… spirit? Quintessence? The stuff our beings are made of, for a simple explanation, is stuck inside the Mindscape with the Black Lion as a sort of medium between us and him.” 

“Like a ouija board?”

“Kinda. Communication is just more complicated. Second news, after discussing it with Lotor, Allura and him found a way to take Shiro’s quintessence and transfer it into a new body. But the problem is you can’t just have anybody you want, the quintessence must match the DNA or something like that. That’s why there were clones in the facility. To facilitate the transfer.”

Lance grew cold, as the realization of what Hunk told him was sinking in. If they needed a body that would be matching the quintessence, and they had listened to him about making the facility explode, then that meant there was only one option around. 

If they wanted Shiro back, then they would have to take Ryou’s body. Lance wasn’t stupid enough to believe that his boyfriend’s ‘soul’ or whatever would survive the process. Or that the two of them would be willing to share the body. Would they have to take turns? A rotation system with predetermined planning so there weren’t any awkward moments when it was the other’s turn? 

But what if the process is too much to take in and it kills them both? 

No, Lance couldn’t think of that option. It wasn’t viable. This… this wasn’t going to fly by him so easily. 

“You’re not using Ryou. You will not erase him for someone else, even if that someone is Shiro!” He growled, slamming his fist on the table. His sudden outburst shocked Hunk and he was visibly backpedaling on what he had said. Shaking his hands in front of him in a calming gesture.

“What? No no no nonono, Lance! That’s not- whatever you were just thinking … stop. Listen to me until the end, ok? It’s not what you think!”

Lance took a deep, shaky breath as he uncurled his fist before placing his hand on the table, extending all his fingers so they were flat against the cold surface. 

“Ok. Sorry…” He said, relaxing a little. He was ashamed for his strong outburst towards Hunk. He was so on edge from the previous situation, that he was drawing conclusions without all of the information. 

“No worries, bud. I would have reacted the same. But, and that’s some of the good news, we don’t have to use Ryou! At the clone facility, after the two of you left us so suddenly, we agreed that it would be better to take one of the ‘Shiro’ clones to study, you know? Just to be sure because if Haggar is the one creating them, then there must be some fucked up things in them or something, right? 

“That leads us to the other news; We’ll need to cut off Ryou’s mechanical arm. We took a closer look at it, compared it to the blank slate ‘Shiro’ we collected, and discovered some sort of mind control device. Were pretty sure it can be countered by a strong will, but not permanently. That’ll be a failsafe and make Ryou’s life easier. I’m already designing a replacement with some really cool tricks inside so-”

"Can you just give me the facts without tangents, please?” Lance asked, whining a little. He loved seeing Hunk so excited about something but he wanted to know everything now. And learning they would have to cut off a limb wasn’t fun. At all. 

“Oh yeah, right. Sorry. So while we will be tending to Ryou with Coran, Allura and the rest are going to transfer Shiro’s quintessence into the blank slate. We’ll have Shiro back and get to keep Ryou!”

“That’s great!” Lance said, all smiles. He was still a bit unsure about the whole after situation. Wouldn’t Shiro want to get Black back? What was going to happen afterwards? Since Ryou is the one the public knows more, would they need to publicly announce what had happened? Would Shiro even forgive them for believing his clone was him or would he be disappointed in all of them? And Shiro must have spent several months in the mindspace, alone. How would his psyche be? That was a lot of questions. 

“You don’t look convinced.” Hunk pointed out, placing a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “Listen, everything is going to be ok. We all believe in your abilities.”

“Thanks Hunk. I believe you.”

He spent the rest of his morning mulling over everything. He knew full well that Ryou would have agreed to removing his arm without talking to him. After all he was an adult, and could make decisions involving his own body without a third party. Lance was just saddened that he had to receive the news alone, and had no choice but to agree with everything. But most of all, Lance feared that Ryou would feel superfluous after Shiro was brought back to the team. Without a real position, how would he act? Would he go off and try to find a purpose for himself like Keith had? They were so similar sometimes it wouldn’t be a total surprise if he did. 

The rest of the day went by quickly, as if he were in a daze. He would talk to people normally but wouldn’t register anything they said. He would act like usual but he felt that the air around him had the consistency of jelly. Even Ryou wasn’t enough to bring him back from that state, since he was himself busy with the preparations. Lance had to be supportive of him. After all, such an operation would take a toll on him, both mentally and physically and every act of support could make it all easier. 

It wasn’t easy. Ryou had been sedated of course, but Lance had promised to hold his hand till the end and so he did. But the image of the amputation wouldn’t be so easily erased from his mind. The arm being lasered into, the acrid smell and the fizzling of the machine. There wasn’t any blood thankfully, but after a moment, the arm was just… there. On the table, its fingers curled slightly inward as if only resting and not detached from his boyfriends body. The part where if had been connected to Ryou was smoking slightly from burnt components. 

How could such an insignificant thing represent so much harm to so many people? It looked like an arm, reacted like an arm, and if you could turn a blind eye to the phazer like abilities, it was just a very advanced arm. Not a machine meant to control a living, breathing human being. 

The surgery went slowly for Lance. Time seemed to drag by, the whirring of machinery was exhausting for the lot of them. Hunk was looking as white as Pidge was usually. Even Coran, to the trained eye, looked unsettled. He acted overly chipper, but the state of his mustache gave him away. Lance understood. It wasn’t everyday you learned, that the hero you launched yourself into space with had been disembodied. Then replaced by a clone; and then that clone, found out that he wasn't the person he thought he was. And after all that shock they had discovered that the ”real” person's soul was hanging out near them all along. 

They had transported Ryou to Lance’s room afterward, because he wanted to keep an eye on his boyfriend, who would still be unconscious for several hours. He was grateful the anesthetic allowed Ryou to have a nightmare free sleep. He wouldn’t have been happy if his boyfriend suffered from one without a means of waking up. They had just saved his life, it would have been overly cruel to make him reexperience his death or something like it.

There is a knock on his door and Lance got up from his seat near Ryou to answer it. Keeping an eye on him all the way. His room had been decluttered, and the gaming system he and Pidge had rigged had been removed, making the room feel empty and sterile. As if Lance had never really decorated it. The walls were as bare as when they first arrived on the castle ship, and that was fine by him. And anyway, he mostly slept in Ryou’s room.

That reminded him, now that Shiro was back, he might want to his old room back and Lance would have to collect his stuff from there. Ryou would still want to bunk with him, right?

Opening the door, Lance threw a last glance at Ryou before stepping out. Allura placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezing softly. Reassuringly. 

“How is he?” She asked. She looked exhausted, frazzled. Her usually glimmery eyes were dull. He assumed from using so much energy to transfer Shiro.

“Resting. Like you should be.” He said, crossing his fingers and shifting a bit on his feet. 

“I will, in a few. I wanted to give you the news, first. Transferring Shiro’s quintessence into the clone had been relatively easy, if not energy consuming, but we have put him in his room - err Ryou’s room.”

“So he has something familiar when he wakes up. That’s cool.” 

“Yes. He is tired and trying to accustom himself to having a body again, but he wanted to talk to you first. You should probably not make him wait.” She yawned, waving at him as she walked towards her own room, sleep no doubt calling her away. Damn. 

“Then I better go.” Lance sighed. Shiro’s room wasn’t too far away, the next hallway to the left, but it felt like walking the hallway back at the clone facility; long and stretched out.

He was nervous when he lifted a fist to knock on the door. He wasn't sure if it was better if Shiro had fallen asleep or not. In any case, they would have to have this discussion, and there was literally no point in putting it off. Plus, if he was avoiding Shiro, it would hurt the team. He didn't want them to think he was unhappy to have Shiro back.

Even if the Shiro that was inside the room was someone he hadn’t seen nor talked to in nearly a year, he didn’t want to lose their precious friendship. They had formed Voltron together, that very first time. That definitely created a very unique bond between them, something very different from the one he had with Ryou. Something more akin to family. 

Lance didn’t want his family to fall apart because he couldn’t deal with guilt. 

Steeling his nerves, he knocked on the door. Lance didn’t quite know if he felt relieved when Shiro told him to come in, or if it was just the feeling of finally dealing with a situation that you had put off for a long time. When he opened the door and saw his friend propped up on his bed by a dozen pillows. From Lance’s point of view, he looked exhausted, yet alert. As if his body wanted him to rest but his mind wanted to keep going. It could have been an admirable trait, if it didn’t so often fall into the too stubborn to rest category. 

“Hey, Lance.” Shiro said, voice a bit gruff from lack of use. His right arm was also missing. The same operation had been done on the clone’s body before they put Shiro’s quintessence/soul inside of it. Apart from that, the other big change was his hair. Gone was the little white tuft of hair at the front like Ryou currently had. Now his head was fully white. There was little smile was on his face as if amused that Lance was analysing him. 

“I can’t believe you’ve turned silver fox on us.” Lance said, because joking with Shiro would reassure him that Lance would act normal around him. Allura might have gone easy on him, and Lotor wouldn’t have known how to act in the first place. Shiro deserved some sort of normalcy. 

“I didn’t know I needed permission to look dashing.” Shiro said, because the man had a sense of humour too, and Lance was glad his little stay inside the mindscape hadn't killed it. 

“There’s a whole permit to fill out if you want to steal’ Allura’s style, Shiro. That’s a rule.” 

Shiro chuckled. Lance took advantage of the small silence it brought to go sit down near Shiro, on a chair that was beside this bed like the one in his own room. Allura must have put it here while she was checking up on him, and Lance was kind of grateful. 

“We thought Ryou was you.” Lance said, after a short beat. “After you disappeared on us inside the Black Lion, we searched and we searched. But we couldn’t do it forever. The war wasn’t going to wait for us.

“We needed someone to pilot Black while you were gone. I had hoped it would have been Allura. Even if I crossed my fingers for it to be me, kinda selfishly so. But Keith was chosen, then Blue chose Allura, and red chose me to be her new pilot.”

“I asked Keith to replace me if anything ever happened to me.” Shiro said softly. “I had a lot of trust in him, perhaps a bit too much considering his lack of experience, and how he was unwilling to even consider it. I thought it was only because he didn’t want to consider me being too hurt to pilot or disappearing on him, again. I should have realized it wasn’t in his character to be a leader.”

“He did his best.” Lance wanted to reassure Shiro, because it was true. Keith had tried. And while the success wasn’t as much as he had wanted, Keith had done a good job, despite the situation. “Maybe he wasn’t made to lead for a long period of time, but as long as someone was here to make him take a step back and analyse the situation, he’s decent.”

“He couldn’t have a better teammate to help him focus. Thank you, Lance.”

Lance blushed, Shiro’s compliments always made him feel giddy. Shiro had been his hero for so long. Even when they become Paladins together, there had been that sort of hesitation from Lance towards Shiro, still not believing how _human_ the man was. Shiro hadn’t really helped by stayed slightly away from their more interesting bonding moments and only truly interacting with Pidge or Keith. 

Ryou had changed that, had seen that he couldn’t keep the facade of the all mighty leader if he kept disappearing on them and getting stripped from his humanity and sanity. And looking at Shiro, half-laying on his bed and still recovering from something only theorized on Earth, Lance knew that Shiro understood it as well now. That keeping away from his friends, his family here in space would only lead in him being alone again. 

“I still feel like I betrayed you, in a way. Ryou was not you and we were all duped by the Witch, Ryou included. He’s sleeping at the moment, but I’m pretty sure I’m speaking for him too when I ask for you not to be too harsh on him. He didn't know and he tried hard anyway.”

Shiro’s smile tightened a little, but he chuckled. “I can’t really be mad at my little brother for something he wasn’t ever aware of, now can I? But we can’t keep switching around, posing for each other. I’m supposed to be the cool one.”

Lance tried to keep a straight face, but failed miserably. He was laughing at Shiro’s expression before Shiro joined in, and they kept laughing for a few minutes before it died down naturally. Seeing each other with a smile on their faces was definitely better. There would be awkward times in the future, Lance knew that. But for the moment, in their small island of peace that was the Castle of Lions, it would be good. They would relearn how to be a family, taking it slow. 

They were Voltron, after all. They shared thoughts and emotions while fighting for freedom and nothing could take that away from them. They would keep trying and keep winning. 

“I should let you rest, now.” Lance said, one of his hands resting on Shiro’s shoulder and squeezing gently. “Don’t want you getting wrinkles so soon.”

“Keep the sass up and you’ll have to run several drills, mister.” It was said as a joke, but there was just the slightest hint of seriousness that made the threat real to Lance. He took it well, but he’d never stop being sassy though. It was his lifestyle after all. 

“Aye aye, capt’n. I’ll see you tomorrow, then?”

“Yeah. You’ll bring Ryou?”

“I’m pretty sure he can’t wait to see you.” Lance assured him, before stepping to the door. Ryou would certainly be nervous but he had nothing to fear, except embarrassment. It was going to be so strange for them, living with someone who knew all the dirt on you and wouldn’t hesitate to use it to their advantage. The next few weeks were going to be interesting. 

“I’m kind of nervous.” Shiro confessed. “But a good talk is important to resolving anything. So I know I have nothing to worry about. Communication is key, after all.”

Lance smiled at him and pressed the panel to open the door, he opened his mouth to say something and was cut off when a voice rang through the hallway. The incredulity and exasperation in the tone heralded the beginning of a long explanation that he was going to stay very,very far away from. 

“Shiro is what?! What the hell happened while I was gone!?” 

Lance turned to Shiro who was visibly trying to bury himself under his pillows. 

“Communication is key, huh?” He sassed, passing through the doorway. “Let’s see how you get out of _that talk_.”

Shiro’s muffled screaming cut out as the door closed behind Lance. He couldn’t help but laugh again. Keith was back. His family was all here, complete. 

There would be awkward times, just sooner than he thought. 

But they would deal with it. Together. 

Because they were finally all home.


End file.
